Plucking the Top Scholar

[One-on-one romance, intense pursuit and pampering, possessive love, obsessive and unhinged powerful official x woman disguised as a man and ranked third in the palace exam] When Bai Yu’an was born, her father was already well past fifty. She had three older sisters, and she was her father’s last hope. So that he would have no regrets, her mother raised her as a boy, making her the family’s only son. The year Bai Yu’an placed third in the imperial examination, she stood atop the Ascending Heights Tower, leaning against the railing to gaze out at the capital’s misty skyline, ready to devote her whole life to the imperial court. Across the river, the young powerful official Shen Jue stood by his window, watching her. He had long been lurking in the shadows, secretly observing the beguiling beauty hidden beneath her upright, refined exterior. He meant to break her proud spirit and make the elegant, white-robed scholar willingly submit to his desires. Even if she did not give in willingly, he had the patience to break down her defenses inch by inch until she had no choice but to become a caged bird in his hand, enduring his wanton indulgence.